Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Nice Little Vacation

Well, that was five days that went fast.Much of it was spent hammering out stories about the "Weekend of Whedon", which apparently is giving Whedonopolis a lot more visitors these days. I was sure someone else would recap what happened at several other websites. Apparently, I have been thanked for going the extra mile getting all the big stories.

Aside from that, I did something I hadn't done since Comic-Con two years ago when I wanted to see the premiere of Inglorious Basterds: I woke up at the crack of dawn to get a standby ticket for Conan O'Brien's second show for TBS. As you can see....

I made it, but barely. I was number 11 on the standby line, and the magic number was 14. Still, it was worth sacrificing some sleep to get to see the real beginning of Conan's career on basic cable. I got there about seven a-m, and wondered how many people would be there. There were seven people in front of me, including five that had been here since 2 AM. It was cold but at least it was dry. I had a book about Dollhouse to keep me occupied. Couldn't have brought the iPod, since I could also prove it doesn't record anything. The best part, of course, was Tom Hanks very happy to get the new show on a good start, since his next movie is more than eight months away. The best part was when he got drenched by the CGI whale. You can bet the backdrop will be the scene of many a strange situation. That's one-up on most late-night shows, except for Letterman. At least his backdrop can feature some trains, planes, and orange blimps.

Because of the usual prohibition of cameras, I decided to take a picture of some of the first fans from Monday's show.

A food truck called the Patty Wagon dropped by, to sell sliders to hungry Conan fans. It didn't show up for Tuesday's show, for some reason.

I also got a chance to see a taping of Jeopardy. The shows won't air for four months, but they have one guy who just make take the show for a lot of cash. It was a lot better than the Catch 21 taping I saw last year. The seats at the Sony studios are much more comfortable. The set looks high-tech, but it's the contestants we're supposed to look at. Alex Trebek is also a very sharp wit. If Dancing With the Stars started ten years ago, he'd host it..or should.

So, that's my last visit to SoCal of 2010. I'll make another trip in late January. I hope this time the people who run The Ellen DeGeneres Show will accept my request to get a ticket. I lost out last year because they changed the schedule, and still got my "guaranteed" ticket three weeks after the episode aired. If my request for the November 9th show was accepted, I never would have gone to see Conan. I'll ask for tix for both, and maybe I'll be lucky this time. Getting a ticket to Kimmel is never a problem.